Incredible Life
by BenRG
Summary: This story starts as the rubble settles and the Parr family can, at last, relax after the most horrible few days of their lives.  However, what will the future hold in the post-Syndrome era?
1. Prologue  Incredible!

The Incredibles - Incredible life

By BenRG

Disclaimer

The Incredibles were created by Disney/PIXAR. They are the trademark property of their creators. This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the World Wide Web.

Author's Notes

This story starts as the rubble settles and the Parr family can, at last, relax after the most horrible few days of their lives. This story is fairly plot-free. Basically, it is an attempt to answer the question of where the Parrs will go from here. Will they take up the mask and the spandex again? Will they be 'relocated' again? And what kind of future awaits the kids?

There will be some familiar faces here and a few new ones. You may see stuff that is strongly reminiscent of other 'The Incredibles' fan-fictions. This is not cheap plagiarism (honest!). The fact is that the other authors _inspired_ me. Without their imagination, this story would not exist.

One point: I haven't written 'superhero' stories before, so give me some slack.

Censor: PG (Fantasy violence and teen emotional angst)

Prologue – Incredible!

"That's my girl!"

Violet Parr smiled at her father, Robert, in her usual shy manner. However, this wasn't a proud father congratulating his little princess on a good report card. No, the crusading superhero known as "Mr. Incredible" was congratulating his super-powered daughter on deflecting a piece of falling debris from the destruction of aircraft belonging the villainous mastermind, Syndrome, with her force field before it could crush them all.

With a brief act of concentration, Violet modified the geometry of her force field bubble, making the lump of smouldering duralinium roll off onto the front lawn. "Man, this is going to take forever to fix," Violet's brother Dashiel (universally known as 'Dash') remarked as he examined the smouldering ruins of their small house in the suburbs of Metroville.

"Awesome!" Five heads turned as one to see little Timmy from next door on his little tricycle, staring at the family of superheroes with undisguised awe. Five pairs of eyes met and suddenly they were all laughing, even little baby Jack-Jack, safe in his mother's arms.

Shakily, the four super-powered people staggered to their feet. With a 'pop', Violet dispelled her force field bubble, turned to her mother, Helen (aka 'ElastiGirl') and buried her face against her side. Helen hugged her daughter with one hand as she kept hold of her baby son, with the other. Reaction was setting in, she realised grimly. Little Jack-Jack was sobbing inconsolably. Violet was trembling like a leaf and Dash was holding onto Bob like he would never let go.

Bob smiled and squeezed his son's shoulder in an attempt to reassure the 10-year-old boy before looking up, tracing the grey trails of smoke left by the bits of falling debris. Was it finally over? Was Syndrome finally defeated? It was hard to believe what had happened over the last few months as a result of the lunatic plot of one single obsessive fan. Hard to believe that the pesky kid in a self-created 'IncrediBoy' outfit could have come so close to killing them all.

No. It wasn't over yet. Buddy Pine was many things – murderous, obsessive, sadistic and insecure, for example – but he wasn't ever the sort of man who would let himself go unprotected and Bob would stake his life on the quality of the villain's technology. The amount of effort it had taken to defeat his 'Omni-Droid Mk.10' was enough proof of that. If Buddy could design a robot capable of resisting almost everything a quintet of Superhumans (as well as a significant number of American soldiers) could throw at it, he was certainly capable of surviving a little misunderstanding with a jet aircraft's turbine blades…

At that point, Rick Dicker, the NSA agent who had long been responsible for trying to keep the Parr family hidden away as 'normal' people, rushed over. "Bob… er… Mr. Incredible! What happened? Those explosions, that flying man and that aircraft…?"

"Syndrome was here," Bob replied in his gravely 'Mr. Incredible' tone of voice. "He tried to kidnap that baby; God knows why." Of course, Bob knew why. So did Rick. It was Buddy's obsession with him at work. However, out in the street, certain niceties about the maintenance of secret identities had to be observed.

"Well, I don't think he'll walk away from this one," Rick remarked grimly. He pulled out a mobile 'phone. "I'll get the clean-up squads to clear away the wreckage and start on the cover story…"

"He's alive." Dicker looked up at the tall superhero in surprise.

"Dad, he was sucked into that plane's engine!" Dash protested. "He must have been… shredded! Which is cool, in a gross way."

"Syndrome was… _is_ smart and tough, son. Believe me, he is smart enough to beat something like that. I won't be sure until I've seen the body." Bob turned to Helen, who, realising that the battle might not be over, had tightened her grip on Jack-Jack and Violet, her face pale with fear. "ElastiGirl, keep the kids with you. I'm going to scout around." Bob turned back to Rick. "Call in everything you've got, Agent Dicker," he said in a commanding tone of voice. "If Syndrome did survive, he will probably still be extremely dangerous."

"Dad! Take me with you!" Violet called out, suddenly slipping out of her mother's grip and reaching towards her father, fear and determination filling her expression. "I'm sure I can block those energy beams of his with my force-field!"

"Yeah! We're a team, right?" Dash added in a rare moment of agreement with his older sister. "'All for one and one for all' and that stuff! You need our help!" He looked up at his father with a determined expression that Bob remembered seeing in the mirror on many occasions.

Bob dropped down onto one knee to look his oldest son in the eye. "Dash, you and Violet have already done more than enough today," he murmured, squeezing the boy's shoulder again to emphasise his words. "Stay with your mom."

"But…"

Bob silenced his son by putting his finger over his lips. "Son, the best thing that you can do to help me is to stay with your mom, your brother and sister. I will be better able to handle this if I know you are all out of the firing line."

Dash was about to protest again, but the look in his father's eyes stopped his words before they came out. The boy looked down. "Yes sir," he murmured.

"Mr. Incredible? I have our Special Powers Task Force troops on the way." Rick was just putting away his mobile 'phone. "How do we play this?"

"Form a cordon," the superhero announced. "We'll only start an evacuation if we don't find him by nightfall. If he's seen, your people should contact myself or ElastiGirl. Do _not_ try to tackle him yourselves. He's already murdered over two dozen Supers since he started his rampage." Bob looked around for a moment, making calculations based on the direction of the fall of the wreckage from Buddy's 'plane. "You aren't getting away, kid," he murmured to himself before launching himself down the road, a human juggernaut.

As it turned out… all these precautions were not necessary. Bob found his quarry less than a city block away, crumpled at the base of a tree that had apparently broken his fall… and most of the bones in his body.

"Mary, mother of God…" Bob could feel his most recent meal worming itself up his throat. It was Buddy alright, but if so much of his costume hadn't survived… it would have been difficult to tell.

* * *

Bob looked on sadly as the tattered form of Buddy Pine, now encased in a body cast and with intravenous drips in both arms, was loaded onto an Army ambulance. "As near as I can figure it, Syndrome's costume was armoured; some kind of super-strong material, an order of magnitude tougher than steel," he was explaining to a grim Rick Dicker. "It was tough enough to protect his body from the moving parts of a jet engine, but his face was exposed, so the fireball and concussion wave when the 'plane went up did a lot of damage. Worse for him, his boot jets weren't as well protected; they were destroyed and he couldn't slow his fall in any way. Two hundred feet, straight down."

Bob shuddered. He'd seen _Supers_ die from injuries this severe. Buddy was just a Normal with a few technological gimmicks. The villain had broken virtually every bone in his body, the explosion of his plane had practically burnt off his face, apart from a strip protected by his mask, and a combination of high-velocity shrapnel and a concussion wave had done untold damage to his internal organs. "In some ways, I think it would be a mercy if he died," Bob grated. "He would hate to live as a broken cripple."

"There was nothing that you could have done, Mr. Incredible," Rick said at last, patting the taller man on the shoulder. "Everything that has happened to Syndrome was as a result of his own actions. He made his choices a long time ago."

"Maybe," Bob replied. "But I'll never shake the feeling that I could have helped him make his decisions a little more wisely."

* * *

After one in-depth look at their house, the Parr family all agreed that it would be best if they could find somewhere else to stay until the NSA had fixed the place. Between several tons of exploded aircraft crashing onto the roof, the small problem of a hole where Syndrome had thrown the four older members of the family through a wall and a large hole in the roof through which he had attempted to make his escape, the building wasn't strictly up to Metroville building regulations anymore. So, after packing a bag each, the family emerged, now in their civvies, ready to travel to a hotel or some other temporary accommodation arranged by the government. The cover story was that Syndrome, for some reason best known to his deranged thought processes, had tried to kidnap the Parr baby and the building had been severely damaged in the ensuing struggle with the Incredibles.

Helen couldn't help but wonder why it was that Normals accepted such total nonsense so easily. You would think that little Timmy, at least, would come to some conclusions about her family and their resemblance to a certain newly-emerged family of superheroes, especially after seeing all five of them together. The only reason she could come up with is that people liked their quiet, unspectacular and mediocre little lives so much that they filtered out any experiences that threatened that peace.

As the government-supplied mini-van pulled out of the drive, she saw a City worker putting up danger signs on their little haven of normalcy where, for the last three years, they had tried to live the lives of an ordinary suburban family. Helen shuddered despite herself, inexplicably glad to be leaving the place behind. It was as if she had been released from a horrible, claustrophobic cell. Suddenly, she could no longer understand her own desire to be 'normal' that had sent her marriage tumbling to the point of failure. She couldn't understand why she had wanted so much to forget who and what she really was or why she would try to force her children to hide away their gifts, driving them to increasingly abnormal and self-destructive behaviour. She had no idea why she would try to force Bob to live a life that he loathed, just because it was 'normal'. Did she really hate herself and her family that much?

No, she realised. It was that she loved them too much to see what they really needed to be happy. Sometimes the easy choices weren't the right ones, something that she ought to have known only too well. Out of a desire to spare her family the hardship of facing the tide of disapproval of the Supers, she had tried to force them to deny their fundamental natures, something that had come close to destroying their souls. She now realised that they couldn't keep up a pretence of normality for the sake of their secret identities without _any _outlet for their gifts. It was like trying to pretend that you were blind or paraplegic. Admittedly, she had only been motivated by a desire that her family should be happy in their popularly-imposed 'normality', but the point was that they _weren't_ happy, and it was stupid trying to keep following a failed strategy.

Helen looked around the interior of the van. Bob was driving with Jack-Jack in a baby seat alongside him. The baby was enjoying the ride and expressing this by shifting his skin through all the colours of the rainbow. In the next row, Dash was playing on his Game Boy Advance his fingers blurring over the controls far faster than ought to be possible. Next to him, Violet was listening to some 'music' on her iPod and spinning a sparkling inch-wide force-field bubble on the tip of a finger. Helen was on the back row, minding the kids. She reached forward… way forward… the bones and muscles in her arm stretching until it was over two metres long, so she could squeeze her husband's shoulder affectionately, feeling the astonishing might tied up in his body.

Suddenly, Helen had an epiphany. As difficult as resisting the tide would be, she wasn't willing to live in fear of her nature anymore. She wasn't normal. Bob wasn't normal. Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack weren't normal. What is more, she preferred it that way. She had tired of the lies, of having to deny to herself and her family the expression of their true natures simply because the unwashed masses feared the superlative and the unusual.

Helen swore, then and there, that her family would be allowed to be true to themselves. Admittedly, you could argue that it had all been in an attempt to serve the greater good, but they had made too many compromises over the years and suffered too much hurt for too little reward. Things were going to change, or her name wasn't ElastiGirl… Hmm… No… No, that was fine when she was 20 years old and still a wild kid at heart, but things had changed. How about: "Mrs. Incredible"? Most people must have guessed she was married to Mr. Incredible, after all… No. No, that sounded corny. No, stick to the winning formula with a slight change to reflect the passage of time. From now on, she would be 'ElastiWoman'.

Helen smiled and retracted her arm slightly to stroke Violet's hair and flick Dash's nose, acts of affection that earned expressions of loving annoyance from her two eldest children. She made a mental note to discuss code-names with them, should they choose to become active immediately.

* * *

A grateful government, only too aware of how the Parr family had risked everything to save them from one of their own out-of-control defence contractors, had been most generous with their temporary accommodation. Three luxury five-star rooms on the top floor of the Metroville Sheraton Hotel had been set aside for the 'evacuees'. Bob, Helen and baby Jack-Jack got the largest, while Violet and Dash each got a smaller room. Smaller in that they were just large, rather than gigantic.

Helen managed to create a makeshift crib out of towels for Jack-Jack on the second bed in her and Bob's room. The baby was understandably fretful after the day's events, but a soft lullaby and his mother's close presence finally convinced the child to sleep.

Helen and Bob would be utterly inadequate parents if they had not noticed that their older children were stubbornly trying to hide the fact that they hurt all over. Helen looked up at Violet and Dash, trying to keep the exhaustion and bitterness out of her expression. "Bob, can you see to Dash? I want to check out Violet."

Bob sighed and nodded. He knew that code. You couldn't exactly go to a doctor and announce that you had broken an arm while trying to stop an out-of-control juggernaut from knocking a school bus off of an elevated highway. So, the close-knit community of Supers frequently found themselves caring for each other's immediate non-critical medical needs. "Dash, could you take your tee-shirt off, please?" Dash visibly hesitated and shot a helpless look at his sister.

"Violet? Could you come with me to your room?" Helen suddenly announced.

Violet looked more than a little afraid. "I… I'll be okay, Mom," she protested timidly.

"Yeah, we're superheroes! We can take it!"

Bob smiled and knelt before his son. "I don't doubt your courage, son," he said at last, his surprisingly gentle fingers tracing the purpling bruise across the boy's left cheekbone. "But we are as human and as mortal as anyone else. Please let us make sure that neither of you were badly injured."

There was a hint of tears in Violet's eyes. "Mom…"

Helen shook her head forbiddingly and took her daughter by the shoulder to steer her out of the room. She was more than perceptive enough to see Violet wince as she touched an injury.

* * *

A short time later, Violet was perched on her bed, her mother kneeling behind her and anointing a series of small circular bruises running across the girl's back. "I'm sorry that I'm so much trouble, mommy," Violet whispered, wincing as the ice cold antiseptic cream bit into the bruises. "I tried to dodge them, but there were so many shooting at the same time…"

"Shh… Violet, honey, don't worry," Helen whispered in reply. "No one expects you to be perfect; you'd never been in a fight before yesterday morning." Helen paused and then shot her daughter an arch expression. "Not that I _know _of, that is." Violet giggled then winced again as her mother touched a particularly sore spot. "I'm just glad that Edna's bullet-proof material worked as advertised," Helen continued, her Georgian accent, dimmed by her long stay in California, getting more pronounced as exhaustion and fear for her daughter took hold.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't able to stay out of trouble," Violet murmured as she turned around so that her mother could tend to the scratches on her face from flying debris and a high-speed chase through a tropical jungle. "You wanted me to keep Dash safe and…"

"Hey, I know that when you wear the spandex and the mask, trouble finds _you_," Helen replied with a grin. "We were deep within enemy territory, honey. You both did the right thing when the moment came."

"Then you're not mad?" Violet asked in a hopeful tone. "We aren't… grounded or anything?"

Helen paused and sat back on her heels, looking her child in the eye. "What brings that question on?"

"Well… the thing is…" Violet looked down in a shy manner before continuing. "I know I got hurt and everything… but I have to agree with Dash. It was fun at times. I've never felt so… alive! As if my whole life up to that point had all been a dream and now I was awake and aware for the first time! There is a part of me that can't wait to do it again!" Violet looked down again. "Don't be mad," she pleaded.

"Honey, why should I be mad?"

"You… you said that we should never show off our powers like that… That people mustn't know."

Helen sighed and suddenly leaned forward to hug her daughter. "You listen to me, Violet Elizabeth Parr. The time for hiding is over, do you understand me? I don't want you to live your life hating and fearing the gifts that you were born with!" Helen reached out to stroke her daughter's dark hair from in front of her face. "Your father and I spent fifteen years in hiding because people were afraid of us and what we could do. We nearly drove ourselves mad trying to be 'normal'. Violet, honey, I want you to know that we were wrong. We can't deny what God, providence, genetics or whatever it was has given to us, just because some small, bigoted, greedy people are frightened of something that they can never understand."

Helen stood and walked over to Violet's small suitcase. She wasn't at all surprised to find the girl's red, black and gold fighting mantle in the zip-up compartment in the lid. She took the costume and walked back over to her firstborn, who was staring at her mother in shock. She placed the costume against her daughter's chest, as if she were seeing if it would still fit, making the girl look down in a shy way again. "Violet, you were born with the ability to do wonders. You can do things that no other human can do. This is not something to be ashamed of. Having this power brings responsibility, it's true. You have to be sure to use it right, but that isn't a reason to be afraid of it, to hate it or to hate yourself." Helen smiled, put a finger under Violet's chin and slowly raised the girl's face so she could look in her eyes. "Violet, this is something that you cannot hide from, something that you _must_ not hide from. This power is your blessing and your curse. It is who and what you _really_ are." Helen reached out to put her daughter's mask in its place. "It is your destiny," she concluded quietly.

Any doubt that Helen had that she was doing the right thing was dispelled as her daughter looked at her with a gradually growing smile, happiness and relief sparkling in her deep brown eyes from behind her mask.

* * *

"Ow! Dad!" Dash squirmed away from his father's questing fingers. "Go easy! You're supposed to make me feel better, not worse!"

Bob grinned at his son's response to having his ribs checked for fractures. Fortunately, the boy seemed to have a miraculous level of resistance to blunt force injuries, possibly as a result of his body's ability to handle the enormous accelerations that he was capable of attaining. Still, super-tough bones or no, the boy's flesh still bruised as easily as anyone else. A combination of falls and several hits from machinegun fire had left Dash's torso a mosaic of bruises.

"Well, you seem to have come out of this in more-or-less one piece. You'll be sore for a while, but I can't find any lasting injuries."

"What do you expect?" Dash puffed out his chest in a vaguely farcical manner. "I'm _The Dash_! It'll take more than a few creeps to take me down!"

Bob laughed before standing up, grunting slightly (after all, he was pretty badly hurt in his own right). "You really enjoyed this caper, didn't you?"

"Enjoy it? It was _great_! The greatest thing _ever_!" Dash was practically bounding up and down in his enthusiasm. "I could finally do what I wanted to do! Beat up bad guys! Save the world!" Dash suddenly stopped and frowned. "Except…" The boy's ice blue eyes had darkened slightly.

"Except?" Bob prompted.

"I didn't like it when those creeps started shooting at Violet. And… And when they were shooting at me… hitting me… I guess I was too focussed on not getting killed to think about how scared I should have been…" Dash sat down suddenly and there were tears in his eyes. "And when Syndrome caught us all and I thought that we were gonna die…" Dash impatiently wiped his eyes. "Jeez! I'm worse than Violet!"

Bob knelt by his oldest son and put an arm around his shoulder. "Being scared isn't anything to be ashamed of, Dash," he said quietly. "You would have to be insane not to have been scared by that. I'm sorry that I wasn't able to protect you from that maniac and his goons. It is easy to forget that this tough little kid is only ten years old." Bob's eyes darkened. "A little young to be fighting for his life."

"It's not as if I don't want to try it again!" Dash protested. "Dad, please! I've only just discovered what it is like…! What it is _really_ like to be a Super!" The boy shook his head. "I know I'm only young, but I'll be good! I promise! I'll do as you and Mom say, and I'll make you proud of me!"

Bob hugged Dash as hard as he dared. "I am proud of you, son. Never think otherwise." The big man sat back to look at his son again. "But you are young, and I don't want you to be hurt like this again!"

"Da-ad!" Dash protested. "You can't make me stop! Please! It is like… it is like…" the ten-year-old's limited vocabulary was running out and he had to keep stopping to think. "For the first time, I suddenly realised what I could do! It was like someone had let me out of a cage and I could run as far and as fast as I could! It felt so _right_! To have to stop now would be… would be…"

Bob smiled grimly as he thought of a certain cubicle in a certain office of a certain insurance company. "It would be like being imprisoned. Being forced to watch the world go by; to know that you can make a difference and that you aren't allowed to except in the smallest of ways."

Dash nodded excitedly. "You see! You _do_ understand! I knew that you would!"

Bob nodded back and looked into his son's excited eyes. "Why?" he asked. At his son's obvious incomprehension, he elaborated. "Why do you want to put on a superhero's costume and mask?" Bob sat beside Dash and continued. "Remember how scared you were when Bu… When Syndrome's goons were trying to kill you. Then tell me why you want to do this."

Dash sucked in a breath. "Well, there is the bit about being famous," the boy said with a weak grin. One look from his father told him that this was the wrong answer. "Dad, for the first time, I felt like I was actually being _me_! It was fun, it was exciting but… but that wasn't what mattered. All I wanted to do was help you, Mom and Violet; that is what mattered. When we got back to the city, all I wanted to do was make sure that the robot didn't hurt anyone."

Bob nodded. "Those who seek power for its own sake end up corrupted and evil. That is what happened to Syndrome, Dash. For him, all that mattered was that he would be powerful, famous and admired. He didn't care who got hurt, so long as he reached that goal." Bob put a hand on his son's shoulder. "Dash, if this is something that you really want to do, it must be about what you can do for others with your powers, not what you can do for yourself."

Dash nodded, his young face twisting as he tried to absorb these difficult concepts. "I understand, sir," he said quietly. "I want to be a hero, like you and Mom. Not for me, but because I know that I can help folks in trouble. I've always felt that I should do stuff like that."

Bob couldn't help but smile again at his son's attempts to articulate his feelings. "You still have a long way to go, son," he said, ruffling Dash's scruffy blond hair. "But I'll be there every step of the way, to make sure that you get there."

* * *

Helen squeezed Bob's hand as the two sat on the couch in their hotel room, looking at their two older children sitting in front of them. The two youngsters were looking up at their parents expectantly. After a moment, Bob stood up.

"Your mother and I have spoken to you separately, but now I want to talk as a family." Bob looked at Helen, who nodded, her face reflecting a sense of certainty that Bob hadn't seen for fifteen years. "In the last few days, you two have had an insight into what our lives were like before the Superhero Relocation Act. You've come to understand that life as a superhero isn't a comic book."

"Well, duh!" Violet muttered with all the assumed experience that only a thirteen-year-old could believe that they possess. One look from her father made her subside.

"The point is this," Bob continued, after making sure that the kids were actually listening to him. "Your mother and I have agreed that we can't let you go through your lives wondering 'what if…?'. You know now what you are capable of; of the good that you can do and of the harm that you could do." Bob sat down next to Helen and hugged her to him. "Since our teen years, your mother and I fought crime, injustice and the unforeseen terrors that can fall on any person. For a long time, because we thought that it is what people wanted, we tried to be 'normal' people and turn our backs on that past. We couldn't and it almost destroyed us. We don't want that to happen to you."

Bob looked at Helen and both adults smiled. "Starting tomorrow, if it is what you want, you are going to learn how to use your powers to the very greatest extent."

"If it is what we _want_? Da-ad!" Dash protested.

"Mom! I _told _you that this felt right!" Violet was just as loud in her protest.

"Dashiel Robert! Violet Elizabeth!" Helen's strong voice cut across the kids' objections. "Listen to me. This isn't a game, and this isn't something that is easy. You will have to lead two whole separate lives and _never_ let them mix. You have to understand the costs that come with this lifestyle. Unless you are very lucky, any relationship that you have will be stunted by the fact that you have to keep rushing off to save the day with little or no warning. You will have to dedicate your lives to a degree of discipline and control over your abilities that you can't even imagine right now." Helen looked around and was pleased to note that both kids were staring at her in a fixed way, fear and wonder in their expressions.

Bob took up his wife's argument. "It is not an easy life, kids," he rumbled. "There is fame, glory and honour, true. But there is also pain, fear and uncertainty. You have to live with the fact that every night may be your last; that someone may uncover your secret identity and kill someone that you love, just to hurt you."

"We don't want you to think that this is some kind of great alternative to the life that we've lived up to today," Helen said. "We also don't want either of you to feel obliged to take up the life that your father and I once lived and intend to live again, just because we are your parents and you want us to be proud of you. We want to know what _you _want."

There was a long pause.

"I never realised what having powers really meant until two days ago on Nomanisan Island," Dash said quietly. The boy looked up at his father, desperately trying to find the words to explain how he felt. "Dad… it just felt so… _right_."

"I never thought that I could use my powers to actually _do _something important," Violet added. "I never felt so… _fulfilled_… before then." The girl sucked in a breath. "Mom, you said what we are is something in our blood. I think I understand that now. I want to live up to what I really am."

Dash grinned. "I'm not letting my sister get ahead of me," he added. "Not that she will."

"Eat my dust, fungus," Violet replied, poking her tongue out at her kid brother. Dash nudged her on the shoulder with a fist and she grinned unrepentantly, tickling him on the belly and making him jerk back. Both suddenly remembered that they were around their parents and turned their attention back to Bob and Helen, blushing brightly. "Um… That means that this is something we both feel that we should do," Violet explained. Dash nodded eagerly.

Bob nodded, managing to keep the urge to laugh at his children's antics out of his expression. "You have no idea how proud it makes your mother and I to hear you both say that." The man stood with his wife and the two approached the kids, who also stood up. "We are going to do this together," he said quietly. Bob Parr raised his hand and held it out level in between them.

Helen put her hand on her husband's and squeezed briefly. "Together," she agreed.

Violet put her hand on her mother's. "Together," she said quietly.

"Together!" Dash concluded, putting his hand on top of Violet's. Then the boy jumped up and punched the air. "Look out world! Here we come!"

* * *

Rick Dicker shook his head as he considered the two Superhumans sitting on the couch in front of him. "Bob, you know that this would go against both the spirit and the letter of the Relocation Act."

Bob sighed. This was the bureaucratic brick wall that he feared. "Thank you, Rick, we do understand that," he replied. "The point is that we've discovered that we can't live by the terms of that stupid law; we realise now that we never have been able to live by it."

Rick shook his head. He had been expecting this confrontation for some time. Frankly, he was surprised that it had taken fifteen years for it to have reached this point. "Bob, you are forbidden…"

"Actually, we aren't," Helen interjected. "The Superhero Relocation Act of 1989 only stipulates that we must give up all superhero-related activities if we want government cover and support for legal liabilities arising from our past actions. Well, we've decided that, if we must, we'll handle our own liabilities."

Rick looked at Helen in some shock. Of the two, she had always been the most conciliatory. Helen had kept Bob under control for years when Rick had suspected that the man was itching to say 'damn the Act' and put on his mask and spandex again. To have Helen demanding the right to start superhero activities again was a shock to say the least. "And what about your children?" he asked at last. "Have you considered how this will affect them?" At that moment, Rick realised that he had asked the wrong question to the wrong audience. A blur of motion and billowing curtains suggested that someone super-fast had just ducked behind a chair out of his sight… and was that a tee shirt and a pair of cut-off jeans floating in mid-air diving behind another chair?

"We are doing this _because_ of our children," Helen said firmly.

Bob shook his head. "Rick, our kids are being driven crazy by having these abilities and being told that they cannot use them ever. They have the right to explore these abilities and know how to use them."

"So, you are going to throw them in the line of fire, Bob? Helen? Wasn't Pine's killer robot enough for you?"

"The alternative is to force them to repress a part of their fundamental natures," Helen responded. "That is a time bomb and you know it. Eventually, they are going to lash out against that control and there is no telling what will happen if we wait for that."

"Well…" Rick sat down and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "If it is just a matter of you wanting to train your kids so that they can control their abilities, I think that I can get that past the Administration without too much trouble."

Bob waggled a finger reprovingly. "It is more than that, Rick. We are going to give them the chance to see what constructive good they can do with their abilities. We are going to show them how they can help people."

Rick sucked in a deep breath. "Didn't those lawsuits teach you that people don't want you Supers interfering in their business?"

"It taught me that there are too many people who want something for nothing," Bob replied, a dangerous undertone to his voice. "However, the response of the people of this city to my family saving them from Syndrome's Omni Droid suggests that they would welcome someone powerful willing to fight on their side!"

"Bob, that's different!" Rick protested. "That thing was a threat beyond any reasonable scale! Only a Superhuman could have stopped it! There has never been any objection to you offering your assistance in exceptional circumstances…!"

Helen exploded. "So, basically what you are saying is that you want our children to hide in the dark, not allowed to be what they are meant to be, until some unforeseen menace emerges. Then they will be expected to fight, bleed and maybe die so that you _Normals_ can continue to live your nice, safe, unspectacular existences! Then they will be expected to disappear again so as not to offend your taste for the mediocre until the time comes to fight for you again? Is _that_ it?"

Rick's mouth dropped open in a very undignified way. He was stunned. Not so stunned that he didn't hear what was definitely Violet and Dash giggling quietly, but he was still shocked at the way that Helen had described the policy he had spent a decade and a half enforcing.

"It isn't going to be that way, Rick," Bob said, in a way that brooked no disagreement. "If you want Superhumans to protect society from unusual threats, then you have to let us be around to help ordinary people whenever we can. Don't you understand that we aren't asking to interfere? We are asking to be allowed to help people who are in trouble, like any other moral person would want to help."

"You aren't like any other moral person, Bob," Rick said with a ghost of a smile. "Maybe that's the point." The NSA agent stood and paced around for the room for a moment, noting out of the corner of his eyes another blur of motion and a hint of floating clothes that indicated the two older Parr children were present.

There was no doubt that something had been missing these last fifteen years. Seeing the raw news footage of Frozone and the Incredibles fighting Pine's little applied science project gave Rick a thrill that he didn't expect to feel at his age and level of cynicism. "It won't be easy," he announced at last. "There are people who feel threatened by the very existence of Superhumans, let alone their being active throughout the country. Some people would fear the consequences of one of you abusing your powers."

"It doesn't take Superhuman abilities to become a threat to society," Helen pointed out quietly.

Bob nodded sadly. "There is good and bad in every race of humans, Super and Normal alike. Syndrome was proof of that."

"The question, in the end," Helen concluded firmly, "is one of trust. Are we trusted, Rick? Or are we a threat to be put in a cage?"

Rick Dicker did something that shocked both adults. He smiled, openly and broadly. "I've never seen you as a threat, Bob, Helen," he said. "I've always believed that the President was mistaken in proposing the Superhero Relocation Act. I've always believed the good that those Superhumans who choose to act on the stage of the world can do far outweighs any potential harm that could come from their actions." The old man looked around. "By the way, Violet, Dash, you might as well come out. I've known you were here since I stepped into the room."

A rather abashed-looking Dash blurred out from behind a chair and bounced onto the couch next to his mother. The tee shirt and cut-off jeans emerged from behind another chair, hovering above a pair of sandals. There was a blur of some kind of optical distortion and Violet materialised, walking over to her father.

Rick couldn't help grin at that so astonishingly _natural _demonstration of power. He always thought that forcing these people never to use these powers outside their homes was an act of bureaucratic sadism – like pulling the wings of a butterfly or something. "I can't promise anything in the long term, folks," he announced. "However, I have been made aware that the President has declared that the time for a reconsideration of Federal policy in this area is long overdue. He has communicated to the agency his intent to propose the repeal of the Superhero Relocation Act." Rick shook his head at some thought. "The Constitution specifically insists that all citizens have the right of the pursuit of happiness. And how could we possibly justify preventing that, simply because what some citizens require to fulfilled and happy is so very…?" Rick paused and smiled again. "So very… _incredible_."

To be continued…

Concluding Author's Notes

Woah! That was a lot longer than I was initially expecting.

There is more where this comes from. I want to address the kids' training, their first solo adventures, some adventures for the whole family and even the ultimate fate of Mirage and Syndrome. However, I would like to know whether my approach to The Incredibles is… for want of a better word… credible.

I would be grateful for comprehensive reviews, especially regarding my characterisation of the main characters, as I am aware that I may have strayed outside their canon portrayal in places. I would also be indebted to anyone who would point out obvious continuity errors or other problems.


	2. 1  Harder Than It Looks

The Incredibles - Incredible life

By BenRG

Disclaimer

The Incredibles were created by Disney/PIXAR. They are the trademark property of their creators. This is a non-profit work for free distribution through the World Wide Web.

Author's Notes

This story starts as the rubble settles and the Parr family can, at last, relax after the most horrible few days of their lives. This story is fairly plot-free. Basically, it is an attempt to answer the question of where the Parrs will go from here. Will they take up the mask and the spandex again? Will they be 'relocated' again? And what kind of future awaits the kids?

There will be some familiar faces here and a few new ones. You may see stuff that is strongly reminiscent of other 'The Incredibles' fan-fictions. This is not cheap plagiarism (honest!). The fact is that the other authors _inspired_ me. Without their imagination, this story would not exist.

I think that I may have inadvertently misled my readers somewhat in the previous chapter. Helen doesn't have anything particular against Normals. However, she has a lot against Normals who fear and try to suppress the Super community while still expecting it to be there to fight for them against extraordinary threats. She also has little patience for fools, as you might have guessed from the movie.

You will see a demonstration of how much trust she puts in certain Normals in this chapter.

Censor: PG (Fantasy violence and teen emotional angst)

Chapter 1 – Harder Than It Looks

It was the morning after the night before and, if Dash Parr had thought that a life as a costumed adventurer was a romantic ideal lifestyle, he was about to get a rude awakening. Literally.

"Okay, Dash, honey! Time to get up!"

Dash, like most children, was long attuned to reacting to his mother's words and so his mind snapped out of sleep immediately. "Huh?" The boy blinked at his surroundings in a disoriented way, unused to the hotel room where he was currently staying. He blinked up at his mother's familiar face, framed with her auburn hair. "Is it time to get ready for school, Mom?"

Helen grinned down at her oldest son. "No, Dash. At least not your usual school. We're starting a special schooling today, just for you and Violet."

That was enough to make Dash's mind engage. The agreements of the previous day suddenly came rushing back into his mind and he realised that this was the day that he had been longing for since his first conscious awareness that he was somehow _different_ from the other kids in his class at school. Today was the day that his parents would start training him (and his sister, although that didn't register too much in his mind) to be a Superhero.

For once in his life, Dash didn't allow anything to slow down his super-fast morning routine. He was washed, dressed, groomed and in the top floor dining area set aside by the Sheraton company almost before his mother could walk the ten yards there from his bedroom.

Much to Dash's disgust, his sister was already there. Like a lot of teenage girls, Violet was going through a 'healthy eating' thing. Personally, Dash would never understand why anyone would select muesli (or 'squirrel food', as he preferred to think of it) over bacon & eggs or even (his favourite), pancakes with plenty of golden syrup. Dash used his super speed to start shovelling this morning's breakfast, toasted bagels with virtually all the selection of spreads that one could imagine, into his mouth as fast as possible.

Violet couldn't help but grimace at her younger brother's gastronomic haste. "That is too gross for words!"

"Hey, it's not my fault that you're slow in the mornings!"

"This early in the morning, no one is meant to be fast," Violet remarked, pointing over her shoulder to a wall clock that read… 6:30am. Dash had to admit to himself that it was pretty early, but he didn't see any reason why that should slow down how fast he ate his breakfast. "No coffee for Dash this morning, Mom," Violet said to her mother, who was sipping on the liquid wake-up call in question.

"He'll get juice, just like you young lady," Helen replied from where she was leaning against the wall near the table with all the food piled on it ready to be served.

At that point Bob entered, wearing tracksuit pants and a gym top that showed a lot of his broad, muscled chest. Helen's eyebrows went up and she realised, much to her relief, that fifteen years hadn't lessened her physical attraction to her husband by one bit. "Morning, Bob!" Was there a little bit of a growl in her voice?

Bob grinned at his wife's reaction to his work-out clothes. "Morning, honey. Morning, kids!" Bob walked over to Helen to give her a kiss. Then he sat down and picked up some bagels of his own. He buttered one and put on some marmalade then placed the plate in front of Violet, much to the girl's clear surprise. "You might want to eat some heavy stuff today, Princess," he said in a tone that didn't encourage debate. "You'll need all the energy that you can get today."

Violet shrugged and did as her father asked. One bagel wasn't the end of the world, after all, and it would be worth it.

"So Dad, what are we doing today?" Dash was clearly impatient. "Do you want to measure how fast I can run, or teach me some tricks to use my speed for other stuff?"

"Nah, plenty of time for that later," Bob replied. "You've got to learn the basic stuff, first."

"The basic stuff?" Dash was confused.

"Basic unarmed combat and self defence," Helen explained. She had to laugh at her children's expressions. "Yeah, who needs it, right? We're Supers! Well, let me tell you a secret, kids. Your powers will only take you so far and, if you can't fight without them, then you might as well not have them at all!" Helen suddenly levered herself off the wall and walked over to Bob. Figuring that he knew what his wife was thinking of, he stood up and walked over to meet her. "Physical power isn't everything, you know," she commented.

Bob suddenly lunged towards his wife. Helen didn't react by using her stretching powers; rather, she turned against Bob's charge, grabbed a hand and threw the huge man over her shoulder to the ground. The impact seemingly made the whole building shake. With a single fluid move, Helen moved her grip to Bob's shoulders, flipped him over so he was face down, jumped astride of him and had him in a headlock. "One twitch and I break his neck," Helen said dryly. "All without one single use of my powers."

Helen released Bob and stood up. Bob smiled at his wife and, almost too quick for even Dash to follow, he swept her feet out from underneath her with a low kick and, in a moment, had her pinned with her arms behind her back. "If you can't do this, and if you can't counter it, you are in big trouble from the first moment that you get into a fight," Helen said, still managing to sound like a teacher for all she was practically buried under Bob's bulk. "Thank you dear, I'm sure that you will have fun counting my bruises tonight."

Bob leapt to his feet, surprisingly nimble for such a huge man. "Hey, I wasn't going to let you have all the fun, honey."

Violet and Dash's eyes were practically bugging out at this point. The two kids' eyes met. "Do you think that we are going to hurt tonight?" Dash squeaked to his elder sister. Violet just shrugged, her eyes very wide.

* * *

After arranging for a baby-sitter for Jack-Jack (a woman in dark glasses who the kids bet was a NSA agent), the family set off in the mini-van for the older part of Metroville. 

"So, how did you get exclusive use of this gym, Dad?" Violet had changed into a gymnast's slip and was standing barefoot on a training mat in the middle of the main training area of what looked like an old boxing school in a run-down neighbourhood.

"Well, you can't be a superhero for eight years straight without picking up the occasional contact here and there," Bob explained modestly. "Besides, this place is owned by someone that you might know."

"We do?" Dash started looking around him as if the mystery owner would suddenly materialise out of thin air. "Who?"

"Impatient as ever, huh kid?" asked a familiar voice.

"Uncle Lucius!" Dash and Violet cried out simultaneously and ran over to greet their father's oldest friend. Linus Best, aka Frozone, grinned as the two kids slammed into him for a hug.

"Hey there little Supers! Are you loose?"

"Is this your gym, Uncle?" Violet asked, her usual shyness absent thanks to excitement and anticipation.

"Well… almost…" Lucius said with his best 'mystery man' expression.

"You could say it belongs to his better half," a warm, feminine, chocolate-toned voice purred.

"Aunt Honey…! Er… Is it?" Violet's confusion was well-founded. Lucius' wife had stepped out of the shadows, where the girl was certain that she had been since the Parrs had entered the training area. Instead of her usual casual or formal wear, the woman was wearing a black, leather-like figure-hugging armoured jump-suit. The woman's long, braided hair was pulled back into a single ponytail, giving her face a severe and dangerous aspect. The hairs on the back of the girl's neck rose as she took in the various blunt and edged implements of violence holstered in various parts of the costume, ranging from a Japanese _katana_ sword slung over her back to a selection of _shuriken_ throwing stars attached to her wrist guards.

Dash, seeing Honey Best wearing what looked like a superhero's costume, came to the obvious conclusion. "You're a Super! Wow! I never knew!"

"Wrong, child," the woman purred in her smooth Alabama tones. "I'm a Normal. Not that that's gonna make your lives any easier."

Dash shot his mother and father a rather annoyed look. "I thought that we were going to learn how to fight?"

"And you are, Dash," Helen said. "Honey is one of the best fighters on earth, Normal or Super."

Dash looked sceptical. Violet probably felt the same way, in Honey's view, but she was a lot more polite and wasn't about to sneer at a family friend. "I tell you what, kids," Honey said with a dangerous smile, "let's see what you can do. Dump me on mah butt and we'll say that I don't have anything to show you."

Dash shrugged. "Well, I need a workout to loosen up anyway." The boy looked at his sister. "Just like the guards on the island?" Violet nodded. The girl shimmered and vanished (her gym wear had been treated with Edna's invisibility-reactive chemicals). Dash hopped from foot to foot and suddenly lanced forwards.

Their strategy was simple – the kids had already tried this and it had worked – Dash would act as a distraction, while Violet would sneak up and blindside the bad guy. This proven tactic worked on Honey right up until the two of them got within three feet of her. Honey took up a strange, almost balletic posture, one hand held up for balance and the other touching the hilt of her _katana_. As Dash shot towards her on his distraction run, the woman suddenly pirouetted, dropping down low, a set of _nunchucks_ unfolding from her outstretched hand and knocking the boy's legs from underneath him. Dash tumbled through the air with a cry of surprise and pain, but Honey was still moving. Her katana flashed from its' over-the-back scabbard, made a silver arc through the air and a suddenly-visible Violet stood, frozen, the razor-sharp blade poised against the side of her neck.

"Leave my sister alone!" Dash charged right for Honey. The mocha-skinned woman back-flipped away from the super-fast charge. As Dash arced around, still accelerating, he saw four flashes of silvery light leaving Honey's free hand, not heading towards him… but _towards where he was going_! Dash's reaction time was blindingly fast, but Honey's aim had been so precise that he was only able to dodge three of the four projectiles. There was a tearing sound and the three _shuriken_ nailed him to the wall of the gym, one over the right shoulder and the other two either side of his body.

Violet had taken the opportunity of a five-second distraction as Honey handled her brother to assemble her force shield and charge the woman, hoping to knock her flat bowling-pin style. Honey swung to face the oncoming girl, her normally warm and expressive face an icy mask of concentration. Much to Violet's shock, Honey was leading with her sword. The weapon touched the _exact_ front of the shield bubble… and a combination of its tiny surface area and low relative energy allowed it _right through_! Violet braked before the katana could spit her like a kebab. Violet tried to back-pedal, but was so off-balance that she fell on her backside, Honey following with her sword to keep its tip pressed against the girl's breastbone.

"Slow blade bites deeper, darlin'," Honey murmured with a dangerous smile. "Bang! You and your bro are both dead!" Honey reached out with her other hand to pull a pale and trembling Violet to her feet. Then, with an understandable swagger, she walked over to Dash to unpin him from the wall. "Sorry, Dash, honey. I guess I ruined yuh tee-shirt."

"I've got more of them," Dash said, sounding awed. "But… WOW! Where did you learn to fight like that, Aunt Honey?"

"Well, that is how your Uncle Lucius and I met, kiddo!"

"Yeah," Lucius said. "She was an assassin when we first met; one of the best. Fortunately, I was able to teach her the error of her ways and the rest is history!"

Honey snorted and shot her husband an intimate look. "I kicked your ass, ice-boy. However, I wasn't ready for mah employer to turn out to be such a creep!" She turned back to Dash. "He decided that I was a little too smart and honourable for his liking, so he drugged me and hung me up in th' Gator Pit right next to your Uncle Lucius. The two of us together broke out and handed the creep over to the Feds. I decided to hang out with Lucius, to keep him outa trouble, you understand, and, as the man says, the rest is history!"

The woman swaggered over to her husband and the two exchanged a kiss that made a recovering Violet go bright red and made Dash mime retching. "But if you want to know who taught me to fight, it was this guy – a halfblooded Japanese, I think – called Bill. He had his own dojo, that's a school of oriental fighting techniques, kids. What most people didn't know was that he trained assassins! I wasn't even the best – there was this blonde chick that he really dug. He'd go crazy jealous if a guy even looked at her!" Honey shook her head. "Man, that always makes her so mad! She'll kill Bill one of these days!"

Dash was suitably impressed. "Wow!" he said again. "So you are going to teach us how to fight like that?"

"'Course not," Honey replied. "Everyone has their own ideal fighting style, which they have to learn all by themselves; Yours will probably incorporate your powers in some ways. I'm just going to teach you the basic techniques of unarmed combat and how to beat various kinds of attack and weapon."

"Great!" Dash looked as if he expected her to start right away.

Honey grinned. "Not so fast, Speedster! First, you are going to have to learn to move."

"Move?" Violet sounded surprised.

"Yep, honey-child, how to move. You can't just take up judo in one day! You've got to loosen up your muscles first!"

* * *

For all Honey insisted that they were just 'loosening up', the kids were sore by lunchtime after an intensive beginner's course in _Tai Chi_. Then came the entertainment. Honey went up against their father and mother, plus Lucius. The woman could move almost as fast as Dash when she put her mind to it. Furthermore, it was pretty clear that the four of them had sparred like this before, so they all had a clear familiarity with the others' moves. 

What impressed the kids was that, even when they started using their powers, the three adult Supers were having a hard time trying to bring Honey down. Heck, it was difficult getting past the whirling web of steel and wood that her weapons were creating around her. It wasn't until their mother somehow managed to dodge around the various arcs of motion and used herself as a living net to tangle the agile Normal's limbs that Bob was able to get close enough to get Honey in a bear hug. Then Lucius froze the heels of his wife's boots to the floor and it was all over.

"Hey, Dash?"

"Yeah, Sis?"

"Did you see the way Mom and Dad were moving?"

Dash nodded. "Aunt Honey could barely connect with them! Mom might have used her powers to help her dodge, but they weren't as much help as I thought they'd be, and I never knew that Dad could move like that!"

"And that cool trick when Dad used a super-strong clap to knock those throwing knives from the air! I never knew that was possible!" Violet added, as excited as her brother.

Bob smiled as he helped Honey unstick her boots from the floor. "And that's the point, kids," he said at last. "Our powers are a tool to use when we're fighting, but they are only part of the arsenal, not all of it. That is why you are learning these skills for yourselves."

The two youngsters nodded. For the first time, they were beginning to realise exactly what being a superhero really involved.

* * *

That evening, the older Parr children were in an excited state, for all they were as sore as they were the previous night. Under Honey's expert direction, they had learnt to stretch their limbs and muscles in ways that they hadn't even believed possible previously. "It was a good start today, kids," Bob announced to his family as they ate dinner. "You should be proud of how you handled yourselves today. Honey was impressed too, I could tell." 

"Heck, we didn't even last fifteen seconds," Dash remarked as he stirred his potatoes around on his plate.

"Most people don't last five," Helen remarked as she fed some pureed carrot in to Jack-Jack's mouth. The super-powered baby giggled but, for once, didn't make a show of not swallowing his dinner.

Violet had already decided that Honey was now her second biggest hero after her mother. "Did Aunt Honey teach you and Mom to fight too, Dad?"

"Heck, no," Bob chuckled. "We started in the business years before Linus first met her." Bob ate some of his steak before continuing. "I was in the school boxing team, and also in the football team as a quarterback. I learnt how punch, how to block and, more importantly, how to dodge there. The rest I learnt the hard way as I gained experience."

"I was in the gymnastics team at high school," Helen revealed as she wiped Jack-Jack's face and gave her baby a sip of water. "You probably can still see the forms of floor gymnastics in a lot of my moves. I discovered karate and judo a few years after I started in the super-heroics business and incorporated it into my fighting style." Helen turned to face her older children before continuing. "You kids are lucky that you won't have to learn too much the hard way. Your father and I decided that you would have the basic skills before you start out. We had to take the lumps and the pain to learn how to defend ourselves on the streets."

There was a thoughtful pause before Dash spoke. "So, are we going to be training with Aunt Honey every day now?"

Helen shook her head. "I'm afraid not, kids. The schools will be reopening next Monday now that the post-Omni Droid cleanup is finished. You will be going right back to classes; we'll fit your special training into your evenings… assuming that you get your homework finished on time."

"What?" Dash dropped his fork.

"Mom!" Violet couldn't help blurt out.

"What, you thought that we were going to let you drop out?" Bob asked, his brows arching up his forehead. Dash and Violet looked at each other in a way that suggested that neither of them had really been thinking about school at all. Since Bob's second departure for Nomanisan Island (my God, was that only four days ago?), their normal lives had been on hold. It had almost been as if their everyday existences had come to an end when they had put on their costumes and gone to the airfield where the aeroplane that Helen had obtained had been waiting.

"It sucks, having to go to school like nothing has changed," Dash complained in a sulky tone.

"That's the whole point of a 'secret identity'," Helen said, keeping an amused smile from her face. "You two are going to go right on leading 'normal' lives, as far as everyone else is concerned, anyway. Like I told you, if you want to be superheroes, that is going to be a separate life. On one hand, we have Violet and Dash Parr and on the other hand, with _no _hint of any connection between them, we have…" Helen paused and looked at her two kids. "Who are you anyway?"

Violet looked at Dash and suddenly felt a hand grab her heart. "You want us to choose our code-names now?" The girl looked stunned.

Dash didn't hesitate for a second, which was appropriate really. "I'm _The Dash_!" Dash announced.

Bob and Helen grinned. "And no one will question why you have the same name as a boy who, by a curious coincidence, looks exactly like you?" Bob asked.

Dash flushed with embarrassment. Now someone had actually said it, it _did _sound a bit dumb. "I didn't think about that," he admitted quietly. "Er… I dunno, I suppose." The boy paused and thought for a moment before being hit by an inspiration. "What was it that Aunt Honey called me…? Oh yeah. She called me 'Speedster'. That is the name I'll use. I'm _The Speedster_!" The boy looked proud and slightly nervous, looking towards his parents for approval.

Bob nodded in approval. "That's good, son. It fits your powers while being nice and cryptic too." The big man turned to his daughter. "What about you, princess?"

Violet smiled in a shy way. "I've always know what I would call myself from the first moment that I vanished while trying to do my hair in the mirror one morning." The girl sat up slightly straighter, sensing how important this moment was. "I am _InvisiGirl_." Violet turned to her mother with a slightly impish grin. "Just so that everyone knows who my mother is."

Helen had to exert all her will not to start bawling at hearing that. Instead she stood over, walked over to Violet to take her hands. "Honey, you do not know how incredibly proud that hearing that makes me."

Bob smiled and stepped around the table so that he could put his hands on both of his older children's shoulders. "InvisiGirl and The Speedster," he said with a big smile. "Welcome to The Incredibles."

* * *

That night, Helen and Bob lay in bed together. The woman held onto her husband, cushioning her head against his broad chest. "Bob?" 

"Hmmm?"

"Are we wrong, doing this?" Bob quirked an eyebrow and looked at his wife. "I mean, Dash is ten and shouldn't be worrying about anything other than playing with his toy racers and throwing spit balls at girls. Violet is thirteen and should only be worrying about acne, fashion and boys. Instead we are training them to fight as part of a war on crime! Are we crazy or just bad parents?"

Bob sighed. "Helen, right now, we are just teaching them to survive with their powers." Bob considered his next words carefully. "How did you feel, during the past fifteen years, when something was happening, you knew that you could do something but that you weren't allowed to?"

"I tried not to think about it. It was hard, though, Bob. I felt like I was going crazy some days."

Bob nodded. "The kids must feel the same way, Helen. Dash, especially, has been straining at the leash since his powers first manifested themselves. Violet is suffering just as bad from not being allowed to use her abilities; she's just better at hiding these things." Bob hugged Helen a bit harder. "Helen, I am convinced that if we don't give them a controlled outlet for their need to use their powers, they would eventually do so in an _uncontrolled _way. At least this way, they will have the chance to understand their powers and decide if they want to really do this. We don't tell them yes or no, we let them experience and know whether they want to do this for the rest of their lives."

Helen nodded. "I worry, Bob."

"I do to, love. They are still my kids, you know. It will be difficult, in a fight, keeping an eye on them and doing the job. That is why we are training them, so that, when the time comes, they can look after themselves."

Helen smiled. "You are a lot smarter than you look, you know," she said with a slow smile.

"Thanks, I think," Bob muttered.

There was another long pause before Helen spoke again. "Bob?"

"Hmmm?"

"Does your healing factor still work?"

"Of course it does! What kind of question is that?"

Helen suddenly swung herself up on top of her husband wearing a feral smile. "I just wanted to make sure that you are all healed after that fight; I just fell in love with you all over again and want to make sure that you know it." There was an ultra-flexible motion as only ElastiWoman could do and Helen's negligée fluttered to the floor.

"Oh _boy_!"

* * *

And so the days continued and lengthened into weeks. 

Dash and Violet were soon back at school. If their classmates noticed any obvious difference in the two youngsters' demeanour, it was easy to explain it away as the lasting affects of having a psychotic super villain break into your house and try to kidnap your baby brother.

However, both young people were progressing with their training and it showed.

Violet's friends, Lisa (the wannabe cheerleader) and Claire (the super-nerd) both immediately found that, if they weren't looking directly at the dark-haired girl, they would have trouble determining where she was as she had stopped making a sound as she walked. Honey had mentioned that she had spotted Violet while she was invisible because she could hear the girl's movements, so she taught her young god-daughter how to go completely undetectable to the human senses.

Violet had also gained a great deal of poise and self-confidence. Suddenly knowing who and what you are and realising that you are not a 'freak' who should be ashamed of an aspect of your fundamental nature can make a world of difference to a teenager's emotional balance. Suddenly, Violet was a bright, outgoing girl; still quiet, but no longer vanishing if someone looked directly at her. One person who noticed the difference was one Tony Rydinger, who found himself wondering how he could have previously not noticed the dark-haired, pale-skinned girl whose movements seemed to become more and more like dance steps with every passing day.

Dash, too, seemed to change. His principal noticed with relief that the boy seemed to have gained a certain degree of discipline and the ability to think through his actions in advance. He put it down to the boy's mother having finally permitted him to join the school athletics team, giving him an outlet for his boundless energy. Everyone noticed that Dash had also lost a lot of his former sullen demeanour. It was as if someone had released some pressure on the boy's mind, letting him break free from some emotional prison. Heck! He had even slowed down somewhat! His teachers noticed that the boy had stopped his continual fidgeting.

Dash had a near-miss with authority when he beat up the worst bully in his grade, a boy named Moe, who was infamous for extorting money from smaller kids. Still, although the principal would not tolerate fighting, he couldn't fault Dash's desire to help those less fortunate than himself. He also hoped that the boy's increasing maturity and responsibility would also act as a positive influence on his circle of friends who had previously been known as the underachievers in his grade.

Dash had loudly attributed to these changes to a 'keep fit' regime that his parents had suddenly inflicted on his sister and him. Violet wasn't as talkative, but she clearly was suddenly stronger and fitter. Lisa had even let it be known that her friend had gained a 'six-pack' and could quite easily lift even large piles of books.

As the two youngsters got on with their everyday lives, in the evenings came the preparations for the future. After teaching the two Parr kids stealth, the ability to dodge, roll with blows and move in a way that prevented blows from falling in the first place, Honey went on to teach them offensive moves. They learnt how to knock down an enemy quickly and decisively, how to disarm any opponent and how to optimise the level of force used so that you could disable without injuring or killing.

As their physical training began to reach its conclusion, Bob and Helen took over, helping the kids evaluate and experiment with their powers. Bob, whose powers were more physical, taught Dash to use his speed in unexpected ways, creating vortexes of wind and water and even using speed to penetrate surmount seemingly impassable barriers. Helen, meanwhile, spent time helping Violet use her abilities in new ways, learning how to understand the sensations caused by her powers and use those sensations to change the manifestation of those powers. In a short time, the girl was creating shaped force fields of many kinds for different purposes.

Next came a visit to their parents' friend and mentor, the fashion guru and superhero technologist Edna Mode. Edna was an eccentric, as anyone who knew the woman would say. However, she understood the needs of a Super. Based on the descriptions of the battles on Nomanisan Island and the subsequent battle against the Omni Droid in the financial district, she had modified the Incredibles' costumes. All of them now had utility equipment of various types scattered over their costumes in pouches on gloves, boots and belts.

Dash's costume changed the least, apart from a modified mask that extended around his head to cover his ears – the boy had complained that the slipstream when he was travelling at high speeds made it impossible to hear. Edna had also modified his boots to include ultra-high traction treads that, theoretically, should allow the boy to run up sheer vertical surfaces when travelling at high speeds.

Violet's costume now included a wide variety of bugs and sensing apparatus that fed into displays in the girl's mask. Edna had cannily realised the girl's powers lent themselves to reconnaissance and intelligence gathering. These modifications would allow the girl to see in total darkness and hear even the quietest footsteps. Further modifications to the materials of the suit would minimise her own vulnerability to sensors that might not be fooled by her invisibility.

Helen's costume now included a selection of fold-out tools that the woman could use to disable electronic locks and open ventilation grids with ease. Helen did not intend to get caught in any automatic doors again any time soon! Helen also had contact suction cups added to the palms of her gloves and the soles of her boots, increasing her ability to scale surfaces when there were insufficient handholds for even a woman of her legendary flexibility.

Bob's costume had received another layer of collision-absorbing armour, including especially thick wrist and shin guards to allow him to block even the strongest blow without difficulty. Based on a special request from the big man, Edna also included electromagnetic induction coils in the gloves and boots to allow Bob to break any mechanical form of restraint (from spherical electromagnetic restraints up to the largest claw of the largest Omni Droid) with greater ease.

"Darling, you will be careful with those…! What am I saying, of course you will! Edna knows you well enough now!"

Bob looked up from where he was memorising the controls of the induction coils on his right glove. "Is there a problem with these things?" he asked. Edna was good, but her definition of 'irrelevant glitch' could be painful for the unprepared.

"No, no!" Edna replied, gesturing with her cigarette holder. "No, they are just a little more powerful than my usual creations." The little woman took one look at Helen's expression and decided that elaborating might be healthy. "Electromagnetic pulses can… how does one say it…? They have an irritatingly destructive effect on complex electronics. Who knows what you may break you clumsy boy?"

Bob grinned, imagining an Omni Droid shorting out and collapsing in on itself like a giant constructor set. "That isn't a problem, Edna."

Edna smiled in her usual, disturbing fashion. "It is if you are on a 'plane with an electronic robot pilot, darling."

* * *

Was it really only three months? Sometimes, Violet felt as if it were a lifetime. Now, she stood on the rooftop of an uptown Metroville skyscraper with her mother. Somewhere to the north, her father was standing on a similar rooftop with her brother, ready to carry out the final test to see if all the effort had been worth it. 

"Honey, are you awake?"

InvisiGirl shook her head. She could go wool-gathering on her own time. Tonight, the stakes were real. "I'm ready ElastiWoman," she announced quietly. "Let's do this."

ElastiWoman smiled slightly. "Let's go," she commanded her daughter. The woman turned and ran forwards. Upon reaching the edge of the roof, she extended her legs, allowing her to bridge the 40-foot gap in a single stride. Just a few paces behind her, InvisiGirl crouched, jumped and leapt over the abyss. Reaching out with her will, the girl created an invisible force-field 'slide' connected to the other roof, which she surfed down to reach the rooftop. From roof to roof, the incredible mother and daughter pairing raced onwards until they heard a scream.

"Down in the alleyway," ElastiWoman snapped, turning on a heel. A quick look revealed a woman in the alley, surrounded by three knife-wielding thugs. Who knew what nefarious aims that they had in mind? ElastiWoman dived off of the roof, extending her arms ahead of her to grab an air conditioning unit half way down to break her fall. InvisiGirl leapt over too, creating a force-field bubble around her to act as both an airbrake and as a shock absorber.

The three thugs must have been quite surprised when the two women dropped out of the air in front of them. ElastiWoman was a living blur of motion, disarming one of the men and knocking the other out with a stretching punch-kick combination. InvisiGirl's force field bubble bounced once as she arrived at ground level and the girl dispelled it in mid air, tumbling into a rolling overhead kick that sent the third thug slamming face-first into the nearest wall, already unconscious.

ElastiWoman had already seized the last thug, now unarmed and terrified, with a stretched arm that had wrapped around him like a serpent. "Who… Who are you?" he whimpered.

"We're your worst nightmare come true, creep!" the superheroine snarled. "Think about tonight the next time you fancy terrorising some helpless person! Yours InvisiGirl!" ElastiWoman yanked her arm back, sending the man staggering across the alleyway, spinning like a gyroscope.

"I've got him, Mom!" The girl jumped into the air, leaping over the spinning man and slamming her right fist backwards into his face in a single fluid motion as he tumbled past. The last mugger/rapist/whatever crashed into the garbage piled in the alleyway and was still, quite unconscious.

"Th…! Thank you!" the woman said, shaking like a leaf. "They chased me all the way from the subway station…! I don't know what they were going to do to me!"

"You'll be okay," InvisiGirl said kindly, putting a supporting arm on the woman's shoulder. "You should 'phone a cab and call the police from your house. We'll watch until you are away from here." Without a word, ElastiWoman wrapped a hand around her daughter's waist and reached out to an overhead flagpole with the other and tugged them both into the air.

A few minutes later, the woman was getting into a yellow cab, she looked up and, as promised, the two superheroines were still watching from a ledge on the side of a building. Uncertainly, the woman waved in thanks. ElastiWoman waved back and then reached for the nearest roof, tugging herself away. InvisiGirl created a force field bubble and jumped, bouncing off the blacktop like a giant pinball and landing on the same roof that her mother hand just tugged herself up to. In a moment, the mother and daughter superheroines were gone from sight.

* * *

A day later, a proud Bob Parr was adding some new press cuttings to his collection in his den. "New Heroes on the Block! Father and Son Crime-Fighters Foil Bank Robbery!" the first screamed. "Angels of the Night! Mother and Daughter Supers Prevent Kidnap!" declared the second. 

"We're back," Bob murmured.

To be continued…


End file.
